Braking systems in the majority of modern aircraft comprise disc brakes stacked around a torsion tube and brake actuators carried by a ring and controlled so as to apply a braking force to the discs in order to exert a braking torque on the braked wheels of the aircraft, tending to decelerate said aircraft. The stator discs which are fixed to the torsion tube and the rotor discs which are fixed in rotation to the rim of the wheel are included amongst the discs. More particularly, the front stator disc which is the stator disc against which the brake actuator bears, the rear stator disc which rests on a part of the torsion tube and the intermediate stator discs which rest between two rotor discs are specified as the stator discs.
The different discs are worn during braking which requires maintenance operations to be carried out regularly on the stack of discs so as to replace some or all of the discs of the stack so that the brake is always able to respond to the braking stresses which are imposed thereon. Once the wear stroke of the stack of brakes is used up, the stack of discs is removed from the brake and sent to an inspection-reconditioning service.
As regards the rear stator discs, it is known to use a disc during a first life as a rear stator disc of a first stack of brake discs, said disc having a thickness at the start of the first life such that it is called the “thick disc” at the start of the first life. It is known to use said disc during a second life as a rear stator disc in a second stack of brake discs, said disc having a thickness at the start of the second life such that it is called the “thin disc” at the start of the second life.
By means of such a method, a rear stator disc may be used during two lives as long as the front stator disc of the stack of discs under consideration is each time of appropriate size. Thus, when the rear stator disc is “thick” the front stator disc has to be “thick” i.e. have a thickness which is substantially identical to that of the rear stator disc at the start of the second life, the rotor discs then being “thin” and the intermediate stator discs then being “thick”. When the rear stator disc is “thin” the front stator disc has to be “thin” i.e. have a thickness which is substantially identical to that of the rear stator disc at the start of the first life, the rotor discs then being “thick” and the intermediate stator discs then being “thin”.
The use and reconditioning of a rear stator disc thus involves having front stator discs of suitable size. In particular, it has been shown that two types of front stator discs should always be available (a front “thick” stator disc and a front “thin” stator disc) so as to be able to be adapted to the rear stator disc used in a stack of discs under consideration.
The method of the reconditioning and use of a rear stator disc has thus proved to be complex to implement.